City of Dragons
by Dyrknester
Summary: Playing games can be sometimes a bit dangerous, starting up with a broken console controller. It can not only take you to a far away land inside your home TV/PC screen, it may also take your very soul to the most unlikely places...
1. Chapter 1 & 2

**Ch. 1**

I woke up feeling the wet floor under my back. Darkness surrounding me. None of my senses are working fine, I'm feeling quite dizzy.

Suddenly my anxiety gets disturbed: _"You finally woke up"-_ I hear a female voice say. - _"My… that took a while!"-_

 _-"Where… where am I?! Why can't I see anything? Who are you?!"-_ I scream, fearing for my life I start to feel horrified.

 _-"Calm down, you'll give us away. You're bandaged. We found you unconscious near the river, what in oblivion were you doing near Dragonbridge?"-_ I feel my heartrate go crazy. What in oblivion? Dragonbridge? Those words sound familiar… but I can't quite remember where I've heard them before. For now, I'm lost, in a foreign place with people I don't know…

I need to get out of here…

My bandages are taken off and in front of me appears a tough faced, brunette guy with dark eyes. He smiles but my eyes hurt, the daylight shines bright and everything goes back to black…

.

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 _-"What are you doing! You'll break my controller!"-_

 _-"Oh shut up! It's broken anyway! You should buy another one"-_

 _-"Yeah, but that doesn't give you the right to give it the final hit, dumbass!"-_ She rolls her eyes.

Man, I hate it when she gets this stubborn… I'm thinking: I have to buy a new controller, I know that. But it's just a game and my sister is jumping all over the place, leaving a mess all around and hitting my controller -my beloved and favourite one, that is- and giving it quite the hard time.

I roll my eyes and give up. She's right after all, I should have gotten rid of that controller half a year ago. I can't help but sigh. That controller was the last gift I received from my long lost best friend.  
One day, he came to play at my house and when he left, he forgot his controller at my place. I let him know of course, but he said I could keep it. He knew I would take good care of it, after all… Not much time after he vanished from the face of earth… and I never got to see him again.

 _-"Ouch! Uhg fuck this, Keira, your stupid shit hurt me! I'm bleeding!"-_ I hear her scream. Damn it. I need to get rid of that controller… I will have to get rid of the last thing I have from my best friend…

 _-"Lis! Uhg this is your fault, I told you to leave the stupid thing be!"-_ I look at my friend's controller. It's broken. _–"Of course you broke it, why does it surprise me!"-_ I roll my eyes -again- and take my sister to the bathroom where I start to clean her wound. It's small but deep and it obviously hurts her a lot. I sigh.

 _-"Uhg, Lis, for God's sake I told you not to touch it!" - "Oh, shut the hell up Keira, when in hell would have I imagined it would break like that and cut my finger?!"-_ I look at her with irony. I would have been surprised if she didn't come out hurt from a gaming session with that specific controller. It's always left me with quite too many scratches but… it was special to me so I didn't really mind it. Now, it's gone too far and I have no excuses left not to pour it to the trash, plus… it's broken.

Sigh, it's a shame.

My sister looks at me with sad eyes _–"I'm sorry… I honestly didn't expect it would break so soon…"-_ I smile. _–"Shut up, it's been three years already it would only last so long. And it was already fucked up when Peter left it that day…"-_ I knew It wasn't Annelise's fault. I knew it was me the only one to blame… but how could I just throw the only thing I had left from my best friend so heartlessly? I just couldn't.

 _-"There you go! See? It wasn't that big of a deal, you swear too much."-_ I say, knowing my sister's response: (And your mouth sure is pristine!) I thought to myself she would say.

 _-"I learned from the worst teacher"-_ She said. Hmm… I'm losing my touch.

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It's been three days already, since I first woke up to find a group of strangely dressed people telling me not to scream or I would give their position away. The woman, Jivete, was the weirdest one out of them all.

The group consisted of 5 people: Jivete, the middle height, dark skinned woman. Her hair was black like the night sky and her eyes were so grey I thought she wore contacts, almost silver if I dare say… I have never seen eyes quite like hers in my life. Then, there was Nikaia. A very short girl with also, a very, very, very short temper. And I thought I was cranky! Her hair was light red, almost orange and her eyes were big and green. In contrast to these quite unique looking women, there was Vyell. The not so tall but tall anyway, mid aged, brunette, dark haired kind of ugly man who took my bandages off the day I woke up in my own little pool of blood. He was mute. His tongue was fine though, so my theory is he went through a very traumatic event… moment that shut his words forever.

The second time I woke up, I could see I was inside a little cabin in the middle of the woods, surrounded by these three people. But right when I was about to ask them again where I was, the cabin's door opened and, what at the moment seemed to me as a bear, entered carrying firewood for what it looked like an improvised chimney. This guy was Adstan.

A person I won't describe right now, but what I will say is that he is… just like me.

Finally, there was Astrid, a way too scared girl who had no memories of who she was whatsoever… -no, wait, that was me- let me describe her again: A way too scared girl who had no memories of who she was before she was also found unconscious someplace in this way too weird place. The only difference was that she had been like this for almost a month and I was just starting my journey. Astrid is a cute middle height girl around my age, her hair is long and brown and her eyes are dark, which enhances her light skin.

And now, I can begin describing Adstan: Rephrase all I just said and apply it to a guy and you have the story of his present self. He's a tall, dark haired, blue eyed young man with skill for the sword. Adstan, Astrid and I have all that same issue in common. None of us have the less idea of who we are or how we got here. I also don't know where I am, although I do have the feeling I… know this place. I just can't recall from where or if I ever was here before all this happened, which is probably the most reasonable explanation because how else could anyone explain I have a vague idea of how some of these towns are?

A few days later, when my bleeding finally stopped, we left for the next city. Jivete, Vyell and Nikaia had a pending errand to do there and considering I had no place to go… or even the slightest idea of who I am, I had no reason not to go with them. Specially when two people in my same situation were going with them. And if there's one thing I know is under these circumstances, being by myself wasn't a smart idea.

 **Ch. 2**

 _-"Sigh… why do I have to pick up the pieces of the thing you broke?!"-_ I scream to my sister. She just smiles and looks at her wounded finger with pitiful eyes, her mouth curves into a sad expression and all I can do is let another sigh go. I guess you can actually do these things for the people you care about, if someone else had been responsible for the loss of my long lost best friend´s console controller, I would have probably killed them.

A few days later, I woke up to find my console was on and one of Annelise's favourite games was on standby. It was quite early in the morning but since it's normal for us to stay up until very late in the night playing games, I just thought she had gone to the kitchen for something to eat or drink. _–"Lis? Geez it's 4 am you woke me up!"-_

Silence.

 _-"Annelise, I'm tired, it's late, if you don't answer me I will turn off the console and you'll lose all your data."-_ Again, silence. Annelise isn't in the kitchen so I knock on the bathroom's door to check if she's there. A few seconds later she opens it with red eyes and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

 _-"OMG Lis what's wrong?!"-_ I ask. _–"I don't know K! my finger is swallowed and it started to itch but now it hurts a lot! I'm scared… what if I got some weird infection from that old rubbish when I accidentally broke it last week?!"-_ I look at her, fearing the worst. _–"Don't be stupid, Lis I cleaned it up before bandaging it last week, it can't be that. I think you've been playing way too much lately and it aches now because of that…"-_ I tell her unsure my words are the actual reason behind her problem.

I take her hand and put her finger under the water stream, it seems to ease her pain. -" _Annie, I'll go wake up mom, don't move your finger from under the water stream alright?" –_ She nods in agreement and I leave to wake mom up. For a moment I thought I had seen her finger glowing under the water, but I immediately rub that thought off my head. How could her finger be glowing? I'm way too tired.

I get to my parent's bedroom. Our father was out on a business trip, so I didn't have to be very silent when waking mom up. - _"Mom… MOM! Wake up! Something's up with Lis." - "Mmm… What? Go to bed it's late…"-_ She replies. Next, I proceed to jump over her and I start to shake her with my hands. - _"Mom, Annelise's finger is very swallowed and it hurts her! Please wake up!"-._ When I finally got her to get out of bed, she's obviously angry. But my sister's hand wasn't looking any good and I wasn't going to let her suffer just because I didn't want to be punished for not being in bed at 4 am…

We go upstairs and go straight to the bathroom where I left my sister 10 minutes ago. The lights were on, the water tap was still open, and water was running down from it, but my sister was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere, her bedroom, behind the bathtub's curtain, the backyard, my bedroom, wardrobes, beds… even the roof, but it was like she had vanished. Like ashes taken by the wind…

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 _-"Where do you think they're taking us?"-_ I hear a voice ask from behind me. _–"I don't know, but they rescued us and wherever they plan to go, I follow"-_ The other voice replied. I look behind me, it was Astrid talking with Adstan. She looked quite worried, I could see her knees shivering from where I was standing. Jivete had tell us to walk in a row, she would be first as she was the most powerful one in our group. She was very skilled with daggers and melee attacks. Some days after my arrival to this Godforsaken land, I learned Jivete was a Dark Elf. She explained her race was good with dark magic and she considers herself quite the skilful sorceress. Oh God… where did I get myself into?

Behind Jivete, followed Nikaia. She was a Dwarf. Her strength surprised me when she used a hammer, three times her height to smack a giant's foot so it would… or "he" would? Well, whatever, so the giant would release Vyell from… its hand… or his hand… well, doesn't matter. Thing is Nikaia was a strong dwarf and you could say she was also Jivete's right hand. I was third in row. Jivete told me to walk behind Nikaia, and right behind me, came Adstan and Astrid. You could say we were the most protected ones as we were right in the centre of the group… more or less. Finally, at the end of the row came Vyell, he was strong and silent, just like a ninja. I still haven't found out what he's good at and since he can't talk… or doesn't want to, I can't directly ask him.

I could see Adstan ignore Astrid's shivering and I stopped. I felt some sort of weird feeling for Astrid. For me she was like a little sister who needed my protection. In that moment I felt like my head was about to explode, my head hurt so bad I fell on my knees, I could hear like something breaking inside and the pain increased significantly after that… then I lost consciousness and I cannot remember anything else from that day.

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It's been a week since my sister's disappearance. I haven't been able to sleep and my eyebags developed eyebags under their eyebags. You could say I was more a panda than human. My mom had called the police and they didn't find any trace of Annelise. No one could have abducted her; the only possibility was that she had left by her own means and will. But it's impossible she just left in the 10 minutes it took me to wake my mom up, so she could check up on my sister. I'm tired and depressed. I haven't turned on the console ever since my sister vanished, so the thing must have shut itself down automatically. I don't care… but what if my sister miraculously comes back? Or we find her and the goddamn console is broken because I didn't shut it down properly? Uhg, fuck this.

I walk into my room and get close to the device. I notice it isn't shut down, as I knew it wouldn't, but it looks different. The light that would normally turn a certain colour is flickering now… I get closer and touch the button to turn it on. Nothing abnormal happens. Then I turn it off and everything goes just like it normally would but it doesn't switches off… _-"What the hell is wrong with you piece of rubbish!?"-_ I scream in despair. It's the last drop that filled my can. My best friend went missing three years ago but I somehow got used to the idea of him not being there anymore, then, the last thing I had from him breaks because my sister couldn't be nice enough. Still, it was already broken, and it hurt her so I had to get rid of it and now my sister goes missing. I cannot take it. I miss her more than I ever thought I would, she was my partner in games and she was also my confident whenever I did something that would have made mom lose her fragile mind. We never had pets, so I was all by myself… I felt so lonely I broke in tears; my knees gave in to my weight and I fall to the floor in front of the TV.

 _-"Ouch!"-_ I scream between my sobbing. Something had buried its way into my leg, it was a piece of the old controller my sister had broken about two weeks ago…

Awesome. Now not only I'm hurt inside but I also wounded my goddamn leg. Why am I so useless and weak?! It's like I can't do anything right, maybe I didn't clean my sister's wound well enough, maybe I did something terrible to my best friend to make him leave and maybe I'm also the reason why dad is never home. I've always known I'm useless… I have never been good at anything and now I don't even have a reason to keep trying anymore.

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 _-"For the love of everything that's worth it, will you stop fainting already?! I'm tired of having Jivete make me carry you around!"-_ I hear Adstan scream seconds after he notices my senses came back and I've woken up -once again- from my lost of consciousness. _–"Adstan! Shut up, let her be! You know how it's like to be in her shoes! She's been exposed to too much stress."-_ Jivete replies with a hard look on her face. I can't see Adstan's face because he's carrying me on his back, but I can imagine him rolling his eyes already.

Adstan is not a very friendly guy. Not very talkative either, the few times I've seen him talk is whenever Jivete orders him to do something, whenever Astrid tries to make chitchat… but mostly when he's practicing with the sword and curses all his training long. _–"You're fucking useless, woman."-._

Hurt.

My chest tightens up. His harsh words pull a string somewhere inside my head and tears start rolling down my eyes. I don't know why I feel this way, but Adstan's words pierce heavily into my mind. I try to stop the sobbing but Adstan notices and abruptly stops walking. _–"Great, now you're crying…"-_ I hear him whisper. I can't stop, I start crying uncontrollably.

He puts me down and I notice a low pain in my leg but my chest hurts way more and I ignore it. None of the other group members notice we've stopped and keep walking, then, Adstan turns around and opens his mouth but stops right after. Next, he proceeds to play with his sword's hilt and looks someplace further than this reality _–"Listen, crying won't solve anything. I get you're tired and wounded and probably very confused, but losing it will not help you in this situation, so please stop crying… I hate it when girls cry, you're all so troublesome!"-_ He sighs. I know what he's saying is true, but I can't hide it any longer… who am I? what am I doing here? Who was I before being my present self? Why do I keep fainting for everything? Have I always been so weak? So many questions inside my head, I wonder… will I ever get an answer to them?

 _-"Adstan… who am I? I don't even remember my name"-_ I cry. I see him make an awkward smile, he's uncomfortable with the situation but… I can't stop crying and I've already started talking. I can't just stop now. _–"I don't know you…"-_ He starts _–"wish I knew you before so I could help, but uh- if I'm dead honest here… I don't even remember my own name…"-_ That surprises me. His own name? Isn't his name Adstan? _–"Y-your name?"-_ Finally, he looks at me in the eye and smiles. _–"Same situation here, remember? Jivete gave me the name after a whole week of headaches, so don't feel like you're the only one who doesn't know anything about themselves."-_ Adstan states harshly and leaves. I stay still. Can't move a finger, but I managed to stop crying. Is this a normal thing in this world then?

After Adstan comes back with the rest of the group, that I can no longer see after a while, Nikaia comes my direction with quite an angry face and looking for me. She's moody but her expression changes once she sees me unable to move from the spot Adstan had left me. _–"Are you ok, girl?"-_ She asks. I nod, unable to talk. Nikaia then proceeds to take me and carry me on her shoulder. She's quite short, but her strength helps her carry me without major issue. After what it felt like an eternity she stops and puts me back on the floor. My knees give in and I fall hard on them. _–"Alright. We can't keep this going, you're slowing us down. I can't help you with your memories, but I will give you the freedom I gave your amnesiac partners not so long ago before your arrival: A name."-_ I look at the person talking and discover it was Jivete. She was looking down at me, hands on her hips and giving quite an annoyed stare at my weak and useless being. _–"Fayre."-_ She says and offers me a soft smile. Fayre. The moment Jivete pronounced the name made the heaviness I've been feeling on my chest lighten up, it made me feel a lot better, actually… even, maybe, kind of… free. I look at Astrid and go from face to face after hers, everyone was smiling, even Vyell. Well… everyone except from Adstan who was leaning against a tree looking everywhere but where we were standing -or from where I was lying-.

 _-"Alright then, Fayre. I have been thinking about this after Astrid joined the group, but now it's not an option. We need to train you guys, because you're slowing us down and we need to finish the con- uhm… quest we've on our hands."-_ In that moment Nikaia, who's always frowning, jumped with a surprised look on her face and made a gesture but Jivete gave her a severe look and she sighted. _-Vyell, I want you to teach Fayre and Astrid some of your knowledge in lesser magic. Also, help Adstan with his sword training."_ Jivete ordered and Vyell nods in agreement. Meanwhile, Nikaia's mood went from a startled face to an uncomfortable look. Sigh… I'm not sure I can fully trust these people…


	2. City of Dragons - Chapter 3

**Important:**

Remember Chapter 2 was included on my first published chapter. _ **So this second entry begins with Chapter 3.**_

From now on, chapters realeased will be one chapter ahead of the entry's number. That, until I get to a chapter long enough to be divided in two so I can make the chapters and the entries numbers fit with each other.

Thanks for reading!

Questions? PM me. If there are any frequently asked questions, I'll answer them on my next entry, which remember, will be **Chapter 4.**

* * *

 **Ch. 3**

I cleaned the wound and somehow managed to take the fragment out of my leg. It hurts like hell but at least it compensates the inner pain I've been feeling ever since Annelise's vanishing. It's late and I'm lucky tomorrow is Saturday… I'm not feeling like going to class after all that's happened. I hear a knock on my door.

 _-"Keira? Love… are you alright?"-_ I hear my mom say. _–"Yes… I'm just tired…"-_ That's all I'm able to say. She opens my bedroom's door and comes to my bed, where I'm lying. Then, she sits on the bed's corner and looks at me, I notice her eyes are swallowed for crying so much. _–"I'm sorry you have to go through all these, K… I'm not sure what will happen from now on… but you have to know that no matter what, we will find your sister."-_ I nod. She disappeared in 10 minutes… I highly doubt we'll ever be able to find her. But knowing how fragile my mother's mind was, I decide to smile and give her a look of trust, I know she's trying her best to be strong for me and I can't just ignore her efforts. She smiles back at me and leaves me to give myself into the tiredness I'm feeling and I fall asleep.

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When I first woke up in this world, I was covered in blood, my head was bandaged and the first face I saw was Vyell's rough face. Between all the pain and weakness, my body ignored many signs that I would eventually discover after I was already recovered from the most severe wounds, and I've noticed how the pain in my leg was persistent enough to prevent me from walking more than 500 meters straight. I look at my leg and find a tiny wound near my calf, it was swallowed and red. _–"oh? What are you looking at so much, Fayre?"-_ I jump. Adstan was looking at my leg from above my shoulder, I jump over my feet and hide the minimal wound. _–"What? Is that thingy the reason you make us stop every 5 minutes?" – "Uhg, shut up Adstan, you have no idea how it hurts!"-_ I reply, annoyed at Adstan's constant insensitivity. He rolls his eyes _–"You know, you shouldn't assume so much. I do have a little wound that's been bothering me ever since I woke up here, look"-_ He shows me the back of his hand and I can see a big, large wound. It surprises me, how can he move the sword so well if he has such a big wound on his palm?! He laughs at my obvious startled face _–"It's nothing, I don't cry over every little thing"-_ and like that, he leaves. It honestly does surprise me. The wound he has is not only big but it's also quite deep. But he keeps practicing with the sword like he had nothing at all… no wonder he curses so much and fails at using it so frequently.

Vyell makes a sign to me and puts his hands together in front of his chest. I come close to where he's standing, Astrid is sitting next to him reading a book about the basics of lesser magic. He looks at me and makes a sign for me to imitate him. I put my hands in front of my chest and look at him half curious and half refraining myself from bursting out laughing. He then, closes his eyes and both his hands, extending them towards me and opening his eyes at the same time. Then, he opens his right fist first and I can see a blue orb of energy shining on his hand. Right after, he opens his left hand and from it appears a red coloured energy that emanates warmness. I look at him and wonder what he could possibly mean by showing me these powers. _–"He wants you to choose, kid."-_ Nikaia says from afar. I look at her, then I look back at Vyell and then I go back to his hands. His right hand obviously held a freezing power while his left hand held the power of fire. _–"I thought Jivete told you to teach us just the basics of lesser magic?"–_ I ask _-"Yeah, but I don't see why you can't learn a bit more about magic, who knows? Maybe you can be my apprentice."-_ Jivete replies. Her look isn't a happy one, nor it's an inviting look. She's testing me. If I'm not able to do something for my life, I doubt it'll hurt her to make Nikaia kill me, and Nikaia would clearly have no doubts to finish me…

I look at Vyell -again-, his face shows concern, but his abundant beard hides it quite well from Jivete and Nikaia's sight. Now I'm more curious about why Vyell has stopped talking… I turn my gaze to where I'd seen Astrid reading about the basics of lesser magic and notice she's hypnotised looking at Vyell's hands. Right… apparently, I must choose between what kind of magic I want to learn now.

After learning how to create a magic shield I thought Jivete would make us test the effectiveness of our magic, but instead, I'm forced to choose between two dangerous kinds of magic, which I have never had any sort of contact with before this moment and not even having tested my previous spell before starting with a new kind... this is not a good idea… -I sigh- and decide for the hand with the firebolt. In that moment, Vyell takes my hand and puts his left hand on mine, passing me his firebolt, not letting go of it, he holds my hand with both his hands now and looks at me inviting me to get a hold of the orb of magic with my own will. I focus on sending all my energy into my right hand, in that moment the orb of fire starts flickering, its intensity starts vanishing and, in a moment, it extinguishes on my hand. Damnit! It's harder than I thought.

Vyell and I spent the rest of the evening practicing with the fire spell, but I don't seem to be able to dominate it. Astrid kept practicing her shields with Jivete and Nikaia fought Adstan, his sword couldn't win against Nikaia's hammer. I go wash my hands to a nearby river and sit down on a rock. I sigh. I'm so tired, I haven't been able to sleep well in the whole two weeks I've been in this world and have made little to no advances concerning my lost memories. I put my hands on my face and stay there for what it seemed like an eternity until footsteps start coming closer my way.

 _-"Hey… are you alright?"-_ I rise my head from my hands to find Astrid leaning towards me. _–"Yeah, I'm just tired. How are you doing?"-_ She sighs _–"Good, I guess… my lesser shield is growing stronger at least. Jivete says I will be able to learn how to use a hammer soon."-_ She smiles. _–"A hammer? But that's a two-handed weapon, how will you do it with the lesser shield if you need to use both hands?"-_ Astrid shrinks and starts drinking water from the river. A hammer, huh… Nikaia is a strong dwarf, but will Astrid have the strength to deal with a heavy weapon such as a hammer to defend herself? I'm worried.

 _–"What do you want to learn besides magic, Fayre?"-_ She asks. I look at her in distress, I don't know what kind of weapon I want to use, Jivete has imposed me to learn lesser and destruction magic, but since I have no idea of what my possibilities are, I haven't really had much problem with it. _–"I don't know, Astrid… Did Adstan learn the art of the sword by his own will?"-_ She stares at me with a confused look _–"Adstan? Uhm… I don't know… when I got here he was already learning it and since he's not much of a talker…"-_ She stops talking and starts caressing her finger. I immediately experience a way too familiar feeling and ask: _-"Does it hurt?"-_ She looks at me and smiles _–"No"-_ she replies.

We go back to the others. Vyell was grilling a piece of meat, while Nikaia and Adstan were making a camp. Jivete was cutting wood for the fireplace. We brought some water with us from the river and start boiling some in an iron pot. Suddenly, I notice Astrid pulling the sleeve of the old dress Jivete had lend me when I first woke up here and I look at her _–"I want to take a bath…"-_ She said with sad eyes. Oh God… a bath? That was going to be a bit of a problem… but… I think by this time we all needed one… unfortunately for us, now wasn't the time to take one as we aren't near any village, night is falling, and the cold is starting to hit us strong. After dinner, we all came inside the improvised tents and went to sleep.

A loud scream wakes me up middle dream. It was a horrifying heartrending scream that made me jump out of the leather mattress. The stars are still covering the night sky but the fireplace's already long dead by now. I look for my groupmates, but no one was on their tents when I woke up. Fire was spreading nearby, I could see the orange aura decorating the night sky from the camp place. I run towards the screaming and see riot everywhere. People's running in panic, children are being left behind, pets are hidden in the budges and a strong loud roar scares my soul.

The earth trembles under my feet, my wound starts to hurt more and more, people run in my direction to get away from whatever was attacking their small town, but I can't see any familiar faces. Suddenly one person that was escaping from the mess pushes me so hard I fall and… that's when I see a tall man wearing a tunic, staff on hand and a hood covers his head. The man was looking right at me, my head starts to spin, my ears hear nothing but the far noise of a screaming tumult and a ringing that disorientated me even more. Right in that moment, a flashing, orange light comes my way. The pain on my leg, my head spinning, and all my senses being left useless, leave me immobile on the floor, target of the reed of fire that was coming way too fast to my encounter. The man takes his staff and moves it in a certain way before the flame hits me, creating a force shield in front of me and preventing the incredible power from hitting my body. _-"Move!"-_ He screams. I immediately stand up, ignoring the pain coming from my leg and run towards my saviour. He leaves his position and pushes me under a cottage's floor _–"What are you doing?! Do you want to get yourself killed?!"-_ I look at him scared. No… of course not, I just wanted to find my… can I call them friends? Well -friends- but at this point that answer would sound… quite stupid, to be honest. He rolls his eyes at my silence. _–"Don't leave this place until the buzz is over."-_ And so, he leaves. I lye there trying to understand what just happened. I bite my finger, there's something way too familiar about this situation… and about that guy. I know I've seen him somewhere I just can't remember where. I stand up, I can't keep staying here safe while my friends could be in danger. At least, Astrid and Vyell… I hope they're alright.

I go out and see guards everywhere, the guy who just saved me was nowhere to be found but I can see Adstan fighting a… a… a WHAT?! The giant thing roars strongly and spits fire right after its strong roar. The fire hypnotises me… I can hear Adstan scream something to me, but I can no longer understand what he's screaming. I climb to the highest, tallest building and get close to the big animal causing heavy damage, I reach out to touch it, the lizard stares at me and I can hear…- but in that moment I feel something pulling me backwards and I fall over someone.

Astrid.

 _-"Fayre! What on earth are you doing?! That dragon could have killed you!"-_ She screams. Somewhere not so far away I hear Jivete's screaming and that new animal -I just found it's called a dragon- roaring. They were clearly fighting it. _–"What were you thinking, Fayre?!"-_ I nod. _–"I don't know… that… dragon… it kind of…" – "It talked to you?"-_ I look at her in surprise. _–"What...?" – "I heard it too…"-_ She says looking down to her hands _–"You… you heard it talk too?"–_ I ask. _-"I heard it talk to you. It called out to you, Fayre."-_ She states. Astrid says it called me, but I didn't hear anything quite like that. Actually, I didn't understand what it said at all, all I could understand was that the dragon was talking… but the language it was talking in… wasn't one I knew or even heard of before.

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Few months have passed since the dragon incident. I still hear it talk inside my head, but I haven't been able to traduce what I heard into what Astrid said she heard. Maybe we imagined it? I mean… it could be just our imagination… in between all that chaos and mess, the stress and adrenaline would have make us lose our minds in the heat of the moment, literally.

These past few months Jivete has been teaching me how to use her daggers, she got me a pair of my own and we frequently practice together. She also has Astrid and Adstan practicing with their own weapons. Jivete made Nikaia teach us how to use the bow so we could be useful at something and start go hunting for lunch and dinner, every now and then, but it isn't as easy as it is for my two amnesiac partners to kill animals for me and that makes Jivete quite angry. I can tell I'm not Jivete's favourite pupil or person… but I don't really mind since she doesn't quite like anyone. Anyone, except from Nikaia, they both get along very well.

 _-"Alright, we're here" -_ Jivete said, leaving her bag on the floor. I can see Nikaia throw a small, kind of evil smile at Vyell, who evades her stare and puts on a sad face. Is he afraid of Nikaia?  
 _\- "Fayre, Adstan, come here please. I need a word with both of you" –_ Jivete says with a mysterious look. We get close to her and I accidentally step on Adstan's foot – " _Uhg! God fucking damnit woman! Why you gotta be so damn clumsy?!"_ – I was about to reply, but Jivete throws her bag at him, which lands right on his face. I can't hold my laugh. – " _Tsk, you're both so childish" –_ He says, rolling his eyes. -" _Listen kids, we're going on a mission in three days time, you're going with Nikaia and with me so you better prepare for it, you're going to be our distraction."-_ I look at Adstan, who's as serious as ever, and then I look back at Jivete. D-distraction? Me? Bloody hell… we. Are. Screwed.  
Jivete then, handed me a way too sophisticated dress and a royal tunic to Adstan. We both look at each other in disbelief, what kind of mission was one that included expensive clothing?

-" _Kids, I declare you now husband and wife. For as long as we're on this mission you must act and impersonate a couple of love birds and I need- No, you MUST look real, unless you want to face the consequences"-_ Jivete told us with a way too serious look on her face. She was directly looking at me, as if she was still mad about what happened back in Helgen. Fine, I get it, I messed up. No need to still remind me of what happened back then every time something important comes up. –" _Fayre, I hope you know this is your punishment for what happened back in Helgen. You won't fail me on this mission, you heard me?"_ \- sigh… she will never let go of what happened.

When Jivete told Adstan and I we had to start behaving as a married, loving couple for this mission she wasn't jesting. Ever since that moment she's made me and Adstan wear uncomfortable sophisticated equipment, preventing us from moving freely and from behaving normally… - _"Fa- Uhm… *coughes* l-lo…ve… could you give me my sword, please? It's time for my practice…"-_ Adstan asked me with difficulty. Everytime he calls me like that I can't help but messing around with him since I know he doesn't like me too much to begin with plus, he hates it, which makes me enjoy it even more. – _"Oh, honey what did you say? I'm sorry I didn't quite hear you!"-_ I reply, mischievously. He rolls his eyes and gives me an annoyed sigh, I can see him looking for help at Jivete but she's enjoying it as much -or even more- than I do.  
Annoyed and feeling quite humiliated, Adstan decides to go for his heavy sword himself. That's how the last two days have passed. Me annoying Adstan, him making pranks on me, Astrid getting worried over Adstan's way too violent pranks on me, Vyell studying a weird book and Jievete planning strategies with Nikaia. I wonder what kind of mission they're getting us involved in…

- _"Don't forget your invitation."-_ She says, Adstan rolls his eyes. _–"Also, you must be convincing. Astrid will be waiting for you a few miles away from the place once you get Nikaia and I inside the building. Adstan…"-_ Jivete gives him a warning stare I can't decipher. – _"It's all set up, mind your steps and act like you actually love each other for the love of Mara!"-_ I sigh. What a pain in the…

I start walking towards the guard standing in front of the castle's door when I feel someone grabbing my hand. Adstan was already in character. I panic, my heartrate goes crazy and I feel how my hands are getting sweaty. Oh God, I can't do this. They'll find out we're not actually invited to this wedding! Wait… who was getting married again? A chief of something? Or was it a Jarl? What if they ask me who am I related to? I don't know anyone! I forgot the couple's names! And… What were we?! OH MY- Suddenly I feel Adstan giving me a reassuring squeeze on my hand _–"Calm down, I'll do the talking. You just smile and look cute as always"-_ I'm finally able to breathe. – _"Good, you're pink again, I'm no ghost's husband"-_ He says. I look at him confused, why is he acting all nice now?

We finally reach the guard, who asked for our invitation. I remember Jivete gave it to me a few moments ago so I look for it on the dress' hidden pocket… it's- it's not there! I panic again and give Adstan a concerned look, he stares at me with a neutral face, but I can see he's thinking what to do at all speed when suddenly I see someone moving on the corner of my right eye: Vyell was there acting like a servant giving the guard the infamous invitation. How or when did he get here? We get inside. The room was big and it was full of people, I could see how another guard closed the door and locked it behind us. Great! What are we going to do now? – _"Adstan, we have to create a diversion… the guard locked the entrance door…"-_ He smiles _–"That's fine, using the entrance door would have alerted everyone. Jivete wants us to open that door, see it? It's right in the back, no one's even in that part of the hall room"-_. I really admire how calm he is considering we're trespassers pretending to be invited to these people's wedding.

We dance and share some drinks, but I can't stop questioning what kind of mission could include us creating a diversion so two people could stealth their way into a building… it's just way too… - _"It's time"-_ I hear Adstan say. He grabs me closer and whispers into my ear some nonsense to make it look like we needed some privacy. A guy that was sitting next to us stands up and gets closer to us _–"If ya pay meh a bit o' coin, I can get ya folks a room"-_ He grins I give him a disgusted look, but Adstan smiles at the stranger widely. – _"Can you create some sort of diversion for some extra coin so we can sneak our way there, nice sir?"-_ the man looks at him in disbelief – _"Well o'course I can mate! Anythin' for the sake of love"-_ He winked at me and stretch his hand out waiting for Adstan to pay his fee. Once he was paid, the man took a long swallow of ale and started acting -or maybe not- like a drunk man and making a scene right in the middle of the room. Adstan and I take our chance and go straight to the bar, where -suprisingly- Astrid was already inside, dressed as a chef, waiting for us to get the back-door's key that would allow Jivete and Nikaia to sneak inside the building. I take the key and head towards the door I'm supposed to open. I doubt. Should I open it? What are Jivete and Nikaia going to do if I do open this door? What's this mission all about?

In that moment someone grabs my hands and make me unlock the door in front of me. It was Adstan, who was behind me all that time. I look up at him, as he was way taller than me and notice his bad mood. Great, I made him mad again. We opened the door and Nikaia was already waiting outside. I notice two guards. Immobile, on the floor next to her… wait, did she…? _–"Finally! Took you long enough!"-_ she said, right after, she whistles like a bird and Jivete comes out of the shadows wearing quite a dark looking armour, both daggers on her sides and while she gets closer, her grey eyes look cold and penetrating, enlightened by the moonlight.

They get inside, while the drunk man was still moving as if some sort of demon had taken possession of him and we sneak into the kitchen. _–"Fayre, Astrid, Vyell is waiting for you outside town with three horses, you're done here, thanks for the help."-_ she says, hands on her hips. In that moment I see Adstan taking off his outfit and taking his armour out of a trunk hidden behind a shelf. _–"Wait… Adstan…?"-_ I begin to say but he pushed me and Astrid out the room before I could say anything else, closing the door behind him.


	3. Chapter 4

**Ch. 4**

 _The path I'm walking is dark, humid and dangerous. I can't see clearly, everything has been swallowed by the black veil of darkness. Night has fallen onto me and I'm willingly giving myself to this dark path I'm walking… if only I could create some sort of light to light up the path, maybe I could be able to see clearly what's in front of me, getting closer to me… step after step…_

I wake up with an accelerated heartrate, my heart is racing, my breathing is heavy. I look at Astrid, she's sleeping peacefully. My eyes try to find Vyell, but he's nowhere to be found. Jivete, Adstan and Nikaia haven't come back yet… I'm worried.

I stand up, it's cold out of the leather mattress but I know trying to get back to sleep will be impossible after such a nightmare. The night sky is calm, I can't even hear the bats tonight. Suddenly, something catches my eye: a weird marking on the wooden stick. It looks like some sort of… scratch? I decide to go investigate when an explosion takes place not too far away from our camp. _–"What was that?!"-_ I hear Astrid scream. In that moment I can see how a big wall of smoke darkens the light of tonight's night sky. _-"It's the castle! Astrid, stay here! I'll go investigate!"-_ I jump and start running towards Sparrow, the fastest horse we have, and before Astrid could say anything to stop me, I leave the camp.

Soon after I leave with Sparrow, another explosion takes place, the expandable wave of the explosion's force makes me lose my balance and I fall off Sparrow's back. The horse stops right after he realises I'm no longer riding him, but I hit the back of my head and everything surrounding me is spinning around.

No… what if something happened to them? Is Adstan alright? Where's Vyell? Did he really abandon us? I get up, dust myself off and try to get over Sparrow's back again, but my body aches -I can't-. I hear people scream, some animals running in my direction to get as far away from the fire as they can, but I'd give anything to get as fast as I can, and hopefully on time, to where I last saw my groupmates for the last time… I don't want Adstan to think I hate him, I don't want Jivete to get hurt, she rescued me after all… and Nikaia… I know deep inside her she has a good heart. I can't let anything happen to them.

I try again. Leaving the pain aside, I jump over Sparrow's back, once again, and start running towards the castle. I'm running as fast as I can when suddenly a big, furry, brown thing attacks Sparrow and I fall off hitting -once again- my head and losing consciousness -yet again-.

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My sister fell asleep on my lap while I watch Peter play Skyrim with the controller he brought. We were going to play other kind of games, and we were going to play something else together, but it's always the same: we always end up playing the same game, our favourite game. Whenever Peter comes to my place I like to watch him play because he can do things in that game that will teach me later how to deal with certain enemies, it's not like I don't know how to play, but you can always learn something new by watching others play. It's raining outside, and the peacefulness of my sister's dreaming makes me sleepy too and I start to fall asleep.

Suddenly a noise wakes me up, my sister wasn't where I left her, and Peter was turning the console off. _–"Hey what happened? Are you leaving already?" –_ I ask him. He laughs _–"Yeah it's 8 pm, K. I have to get home, you know."-_. 8 pm?! I slept two freaking hours?! That's why my neck hurts. He takes his jacket and gives me a pat on the shoulder. _–"It's always a pleasure to play while you sleep! Hahaha"-_ He laughs, I look at him with a fake mad look and we say goodbye. Right after my sister arrives at the front door with a pot of home made cookies. _–"Oh darn, he left?"-_ She asks – _"Yeah, but he just left, you can go after him."-_ I suggest. But the rain was pouring hard outside and even when we called out to him, Peter couldn't hear us. He apparently didn't hear his mobile either, because even when I called him I could see he didn't even take the device out of his pocket. The subway was nearby and he's quite a tall guy, even if we decided to run after him, his long legs would have taken him inside way before we had the chance to even reach a proper distance for him to hear us scream his name. Shame, the cookies Annelise made were delicious.

I go back to my room and notice a red spot on my shoulder. What's this? Blood? That's when I notice Peter had left his controller over the console. Oh damnit, next time I get to see him will be after our period of exams. Well, it's not like I will destroy it or anything. I try calling him again, but he didn't reply, so I sent him a text:

Keira:

Hey, smartass! You left your controller on my console.  
Delivered 8:21

Pets:

Oh crap, really? Well, you take care of it :)  
8:44 pm

And that's how you gain a new controller. I get close to it and notice it's a bit scratched on one side, I take it, there's blood on that exact part of it. Great, Peter got hurt and said nothing. Typical of him.

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I woke up to find Sparrow caressing my face with his nose. There was mud on my hair and all over my body, I can no longer hear the people's screams at the castle. The incident was over. I stand up and take Sparrow with me, I walk clumsily over the mud. Everything hurts, but I need to find my groupmates…

I get to the place where Adstan and I pretended to be a couple and attended someone's -I don't really know who- wedding. The castle was destroyed. Everything was burnt down, there were bodies of people who didn't make it out of the explosion spread all around the place… I vomit at such carnage. The sight of all this massive destruction is unbearable. _–"There was a wedding taking place here while it happened, none of them survived."-_ I hear someone say. I turned around, startled. There, standing in front of me, stands the man who protected me from the dragon's reed of fire at Helgen. I feel my face go pale. I know this person… but who is he? Where have I seen this person before? A dream? I take a step close to him, but he takes another step back. _–"What are you doing here?"-_ He asks. – _"I… was looking for someone. They were here last night; do you know what happened?"-_ I ask the stranger in front of me. He turns his sight to the floor and sighs, as if my presence was a bother to him. _–"It looks like someone made this whole place blow up. It wasn't a dragon if that's what you were thinking."-_. He starts walking around the bodies and takes something from near one of them. Suddenly I feel something grab my foot and I scream. The man, who was kneeling searching for something, stands up as quickly as a lightning and takes his staff, ready to begin a fight. But what we saw, instead of an enemy, was a severely wounded woman asking for help.

He dropped his staff and got close to her. He put both hands over her and a beautiful, golden and sparkly coloured kind of magic came out of his hands. The woman's face went peaceful and I could see how her wounds started to heal. What a beautiful kind of magic. The man, who was almost finished healing the lady, noticed how fascinated I was by his magic and smiled. – _"I think I might have misjudged you, uh... what's your name?"-_ I look at him confused. – _"Fayre… or that's how they call me…"-_ He remains silent for a while. _–"Fayre they call you? And how do you call yourself?"-_ I go blank. My head aches again. How do I call myself? I don't know! If I did, Jivete wouldn't have had to come up with a name for me!

He notices I'm struggling _–"Your name. Your real name. What's your real name?"-_ he asks, still kneeling, one forearm in one leg, the other one on his knee. My real name… I don't know my real name… _-"Fine, you don't want to tell me, I get it. I might have judged you well enough, then."-_ He stands up, I bite my lip. – _"I don't remember… my real name…"-_ I finally mumble. He stops walking and turns around looking curious. _–"How's that? You don't know who you are?"-_ He asks mid smile. He's laughing at me, what a pig. _–"No. Jivete, Nikaia and Vyell found me unconscious near Dragonbridge. I have no recalling of who I was before I woke up the day they found me."-_ I decide to trust him. After all, he just healed a severely wounded lady, he can't be all that bad… or so I want to believe. He also rescued me from the dragon back in Helgen… no, he can't be a bad person, he wouldn't do all those things if he were. The mysterious man walks up to me and takes a closer look at my face _–"You don't seem like the kind of person that gets along with that kind of people, is it the fact that they found you, the reason why you're traveling with them?"-_ He asks.

I don't understand, "that kind of people"? What could he possibly mean by that? Are Jivete, Nikaia and Vyell bad people? I don't believe so. They rescued Astrid, Adstan and me! Why would they rescue an unconscious random person if they were bad people? It doesn't make sense…

I must have had quite a weird look on my face because the strange man starts laughing middle of my thinking. _–"Your face gives you away, you're quite easy to read, Fayre."-_ He keeps laughing. _–"I'm Wlfric. With w, if you ever need to write it down."-_ He winks at me. What the hell is up with this guy? First, he takes me for some sort of criminal and now he winks at me. He's mentally unstable!

We search the place for my "friends" bodies. I really hoped we didn't find them, but at the same time I was worried if they weren't in between the cadavers, then… where could they be? I should probably head back to the camp, I left Astrid there all by herself and if there's something I've learned after months of practicing my melee attacks is that daggers are way easier to dominate than a heavy hammer. I need to go back to her. – _"Wlfric… I- I need to go back, they're not here."-_ He stands up and stares at me with a serious face. His eyes are cold and penetrating. _–"It's up to you, Fayre… I'm sure you'll soon find yourself coughed in the middle of quite the dilemma, though"-_. I look at him with concern _–"What do you mean?"-_ I ask. He suggests a smile with the corner of his lips, but it's almost an invisible one. _–"My lady, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I think you'll have to find out yourself and time will give me reason."-_ he states, almost in a whisper.

When I get back at camp I can see Astrid boiling something in an iron pot. Behind her, there was Vyell who smiled when he noticed I arrived safely. _–"Vyell! Where were you? I looked for you all night long!"-_ I say, hiding the fact I had vanished again, but I got no answer. Well… not that a mute man will ever explain where he was about 5 hours ago, maybe it was stupid of me to ask such thing. _–"Fayre…"-_ I hear Astrid begin _–"Vyell found Adstan. He's wounded… he… you should go talk to him…"-_ Astrid says with a sad face. I hurry to find Adstan. He was lying on Vyell's improvised tent, the place was a bloodshed. _–"For the love of- what happened to you!?"-_ Adstan opens his eyes, startled by my high tone. I can hear him let a sigh go and sketch a weak smile at the same time _–"Why are you always so loud, Fayre. Your voice gives me a headache."-._ At least his humour hasn't vanished, I see… I feel how my eyes begin to hurt, announcing tears that were digging their way out of my eyes. _–"Hey… don't start crying on me again, you know I can't stand it when girls cry…"-_ He whispers, touching his nose with his thumb and index finger. How can I not get worried? We've been traveling together for a while now and I consider him a friend, how in oblivion- I said oblivion? Oh God… costumes get stuck after a while… well, anyways how can he expect me not to get worried? I'm not a rock, I got a heart and a soul, there's no way I can stay unperturbed at the sight of his wounds! _–"Adstan, I met a man earlier today, he healed a severely wounded woman near the castle, he-" – "You went there after Jivete told you to leave?! What on earth were you thinking Fayre?! Ugh…!"-_ He starts to get up but the wound he has on his side hurts him, making him close his eyes fiercely and curve his mouth leaving an expression of pain on his face. I get close to check up on him, but he pushes me away. _–"You're an idiot. Is your desire to get yourself killed? If it's that so, don't make me worry about your useless being."-_ He harshly states and turns to his good sight to stop facing me. I lower my sight. I was just trying to find them, I was worried… but it looks like I do everything wrong.

The night was falling and Jivete and Nikaia hasn't come back. Adstan's been sleeping all day long and I finally decide to tell Vyell what I saw in the woods last night. He was reading his strange book again and when he notices I'm approaching him, he closes it and puts it inside his little leather bag. I sit next to him and begin to describe what I saw. How a big, furry, dark creature attacked Sparrow and my lost of consciousness after that. I could see how Vyell's look transformed from a relaxed expression to a tough, sort of worried one, and it was getting more and more evident the more I told him about last night's events. Specially when I got to the part where Wlfric appeared at the castle. His eyes went dark and cold. I could see a total different Vyell from the one I'm used to, and it honestly… scared me.

I went back to check on Adstan, he was sleeping but his expression clearly showed he wasn't having a good sleep. His wound was still bleeding quite a lot, so I decide to do something about it. I take his cream coloured shirt and ripped it off in order to use it as bandage. I uncover his torso and take the herbal salve Vyell had made to put on Adstan's wounds and spread it on his injuries. I could see how swollen his side is, it's also quite red too. The wound is quite deep and large, it was made by a dagger, or at least that's what it looks like…  
The more salve I put on Adstan's wounds, the more relaxed his expression gets. I think it's working. Poor Adstan… what could have possibly happened? And where could Jivete and Nikaia be? I wonder… _-"Why are you doing this, Fayre?"-_ Adstan's voice startles me. Do what? Healing him? What else does he want me to do? Let him die? He rolls his eyes at my lack of answer. In that moment, Astrid enters the tent with a bowl of a green looking thing. I hope she isn't planning on feeding Adstan with that, it honestly doesn't look eatable!

 _-"Fayre, can you give Adstan this soup, please? I made it using some of the herbs on Vyell's alchemy book. It should help him with the pain."-_ I look at her, eyes wide open and lifting one eyebrow. The thing stinks! _–"Astrid… you sure this thing's eatable? Are you sure you used the right plants and we're not in danger of killing this guy?"-_ I ask, half jesting, half serious. She gives me the most "are you serious" look I've ever seen, I guess I just have to trust her, after all, whether it left with my memories or had I never learned how to do it, I have nor the less idea how to make food to survive a day. So… I give the… potion… to Adstan who much to his regret eats it putting the funniest faces I've ever seen. _–"I hope you know how much I despise you right now, Fayre, for laughing at my disgrace"-_ He says, trying to control his inner need to vomit the green potion.

A thought suddenly strikes my head – _"Adstan… who did this to you?"-_ I shyly ask him as I put the bowl down. His stare darkens. Silence takes over the tent and while I wait for him to answer my question Jivete enters the tent in a hurry. – _"Adstan… So you made it…"-_ She looks at him with cold eyes. I can feel the tension growing between them, I start to feel anxious myself, what's happening here? Jivete then proceeds to take the bowl that contained the green thing Astrid had cooked for Adstan and puts a white powder on it, she starts to mix it up with what's left of the soup with healing properties, and after a while, it turns dark brown.

She looks at me _–"Fayre, Astrid told me you went looking for us, how sweet. But I don't like when my subordinates go against my orders. Also, what happened to the boy you met outside the castle?"-_ She asks, still holding the bowl on her hands. I nod. For some reason her expression makes me feel… frightened. _–"I… was worried about you, ma'am… I never intended to disobey you, I just wanted to know if you, Nikaia and Adstan were alright."-_ I mumble. In that moment, Adstan looks at me right in the eye. His penetrating blue eyes were shining with the light of the candle that was placed behind me. I space out into his deep blue eyes when I hear Jivete laugh. _–"Fayre, you're something. Here, take this. I think you mentioned to Vyell you hit your head earlier today, this will help you. Eat what's left of Adstan's food."-_ she orders. I doubt. How could Vyell tell her what I told him before her arrival if he doesn't talk? I stare at the bowl Jivete had just given me, observing how its colour had changed from green to brown, wondering… is it safe to eat this after Jivete added that powder to the mixture? I look at Adstan who gives me a concerned look, and then I look up at Jivete who urges me to eat the content with her eyes, smiling and serious at the same time. I take one last look at the content of the bowl before taking it near my lips and drinking the mixture. – _"Finish it off."-_ I hear Jivete say. And so I do.


	4. City of Dragons - Chapter 5

**Ch. 5**

Fayre drank the content of the bowl after Jivete added that powder to it. After that, she instantly collapsed to the floor and I jumped to her aid. My wound didn't matter, the pain didn't matter, and it did hurt quite a lot. The girl was worried for our wellbeing, and the witch makes her drink some weird poison. What the hell is wrong with this Dunmer? _–"Adstan, your friend will be ok. I can't say the same about you if you ever disobey me again. It's my last warning"-_. And like that, she leaves the tent.

I take Fayre with the little force my injury allows me to do and place her head next to me. My wound opens once again, and it stained her green dress, I guess she'll have to deal with it once she wakes up. Right now… right now I need to protect her and Astrid from the current circumstances… but I'm not sure yet whether what happened at the castle has an actual reason to it… or…

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Beer, cigarettes and music. What could be better? Friends playing on my console while I tune my electric guitar. Our band is finally back for a run after a year of hiatus and it makes me quite happy. They're playing Skyrim again, such boring bastards. I like it too, but I can't understand the vice of playing the same game over and over and over again. It gets monotonous.

 _-"Hey Hunter, you up for a smoke?"-_ One of my friends ask. Not quite the ordinary smoke, but weed it is what he's offering. _–"Nah, you know I don't do that kind of stuff."-_ I dryly reply. My guitar makes an annoying sound while I say this. I can't stand the smell, or how stupid that thing turns my friends after a couple of smokes. It never did anything to me either and I've tried it a few times. In conclusion, I find it to be a very boring social activity. I finish tuning my instrument and call out for my bandmates to start our practice session before they get high _–"Guys, first guitar's done. Let's start with practice, leave that rubbish for later."-_ I say. They all let out a sigh and look at me like saying "such a boring dude", for all I care. I roll my eyes.

We play covers from different bands, specially rock and punk. I was never made for singing but I do play the guitar quite well if I can say so myself. That's why I'm first guitarist. We play Back in Black from AC/DC first.

Peter, our newest singer -joined two years ago- sings very well for a boring looking guy, we nicknamed him the "nerd guy" the moment he joined our group of friends. Known by hanging out with girls, I thought he strike for the same team, but I got to see quite compromising sites on his mobile once and none of them had a male star to give my theory a boost. Thanks heavens, though. I never had the courage or the interest to ask him directly.

We start our rehearsal but Peter's voice isn't as good as it usually is _–"Hey, Pete, you alright?"-_ I ask. He nods in agreement but looks at his hands with an awkward face. He's caressing his thumb, that looks very swallowed. I don't pay much attention to it since he's just a singer, it shouldn't prevent him from singing well, but for some reason it bothers him a lot and we decide to stop mid rehearsal because nerd boy couldn't sing. I let a sigh go, what a waste of my time.

While I play videogames I can hear my friends start making a fuzz over something. I don't care, but they're being quite loud, so I quit the game and go check what the fuzz is all about. They're pushing Peter who's blushing -red as hell- and looking tormented. _–"What the hell is going on here, I can't concentrate on my playing!"-_ I scream, half annoyed, half jesting… okay, more annoyed than anything. Peter looks at me with pleading eyes. The guys are looking at something on his device. I take it from one of my friend's hand and see a cute girl standing next to my nerd friend. A picture of two happy looking people.

The girl has green eyes and light brown hair, her skin is pale and she's shorter -by much- than Peter. I put on an evilish smile and look right at Peter, who's very annoyed now. _–"Is she your girlfriend? She's cute! Why were you hiding her? We thought you liked dudes!"-_ I say bursting out laughing. I can see Peter go pale _–"She's nowhere near being my girlfriend, she is my best friend, now can you give me the bloody mobile back, please?"-_ I smile again, now more mischievously than before _–"Is that so? Then introduce her to us, I'd love to be her_ _ **friend**_ _"-_ I say, emphasising the word "friend". He lets a sigh go and lower his sight to check on his thumb. _–"I don't have time for this, I told her I was going to her place for a gaming session."-_ He says, making a face that showed how his wound hurts. _–"Oh so the chick plays videogames? You ought to introduce her to us, mate! We want to be her best friends too!"-_ One of my friends says while laughing. Peter looks at the ceiling and sighs. _–"She's not the friendly type of girl, specially with idiots."-_ He says, anger on his eyes. I nod, maybe we're being assholes to the poor guy, but he looks for it by being so serious. The dude has an outstanding voice but again, he doesn't quite fit with us "idiots". I wonder how did he meet such a beautiful girl. Okay, he's not hideous, but… I laugh at my thoughts. When did I become such a narcissist?

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Fayre has been out for a day now. We haven't moved from our camp because I'm recovering from my wounds and Fayre is unconscious. Jivete and Nikaia don't seem to be bothered by the fact we're not moving, they're quite relaxed, I dare say. I look at Fayre's long hair. It's messy and some of her locks have mud on them. I start cleaning it out of boredom and notice how fayre she actually is. Now I get why Jivete gave her that name, it suits her well. I take a closer look at her face, she's pale, obviously! The girl was drugged and has been out for a whole day, of course she's not precisely blushing! But it doesn't make her look any less beautiful. Her long hair is curly, and it looks golden under the sunlight. I feel awkward. What the hell Adstan? This is not the time to stare. I sigh and lean on my back while I stare at the clouds. Today is a nice day. Suddenly, the thought of what happened back at the castle strikes me.

 _I pushed Fayre and Astrid out of the door and closed it on their faces. Fayre was going to say something, but I didn't let her finish. It would only make my task harder. I turned around and found Jivete handing me my sword. I took it and my wound hurt, I didn't mind the pain, we didn't have time for that._

 _–"_ _Now listen to me, Adstan. This task ahead is very important. We're going to get paid very well for this and we need the extra coin since we're too many on the group. No questions, just do as I tell you, understood?"- Jivete said. I nodded in agreement. No questions asked, it didn't matter, I fully trusted the people that saved me from dying about half a year ago already. I will be forever grateful and for that, they may use me as their tool, their sword, their bodyguard and protector. As they told me, I would do._

 _We sneaked our way into the castle. A few guards noticed us trespassing, but it wasn't hard for Nikaia to take them out of our way. I too, had to get rid of some of them. We kept going until we found ourselves in a big, luxurious looking bedchamber. Two old people were sleeping on the bed and I noticed Jivete getting closer to the man while Nikaia was pouring something onto the woman's glass placed next to the bed. I could see Jivete taking her dagger out when I reacted -not intentionally- and stopped her from killing the old sleeping man. She then, in one move, pushed me to the ground and hurt my side with the same dagger she was holding. I let out a scream of pain, waking the old couple up. The woman started screaming while the old man rushed to a desk, where a bell was waiting to be played. He was going to alert the guards we were there. I tried to stand up but the wound Jivete gave me was bleeding heavily. I could see how the man was inches apart from the desk when Jivete jumped over him, cutting his throat from behind with her already scarlet tainted dagger. In that moment everything appeared to be in slow motion. I could hear the woman cry at her husband's assassination and at the same time I could see how Nikaia slowly got closer to her until she reached her, and, in one move, she broke the woman's neck._

 _I felt the blood leaving my body and I was about to pass out, but something stronger than the blood loss and the pain made me stand up, everything went from slow to fast motion in a matter of seconds. The guards entered the room in a rush, at the same time I could see Jivete throwing something at the deceased couple's corpses and leaving after Nikaia, who jumped out of a window. I decided to follow them. I fell on my back, crawled into the forest and I passed out. After that, all I could remember was a big, loud noise that woke me up and a big, furry, brown creature getting close to me. I couldn't move, I couldn't see well, everything was dark and blurry…_

 _-"And then I woke up in camp…"-_ I whisper. I look at my wound, it's closing. I sigh. There must be an explanation to what happened back there, Jivete trusted me and I couldn't do something as simple as watching out for enemies while they did their job. But… what kind of job is the one that makes you kill for money? No, there must be something more into it… Jivete and Nikaia would never hurt anyone without a reason. I trust them, I was in their way even though I knew it was an important task on their hands… there must be- I feel dizzy. I put one hand on my forehead and notice how everything starts spinning around. Bloody hell curse the day I messed with Fayre for fainting out of everything!

The next day, Fayre finally woke up. She was paler than ever and had no recollection of what happened two days ago... Why would Jivete do something like that to Fayre? What could her motives have been?

A week later I was finally able to walk. We were about to leave the place we were camping at, when a messenger came with a letter for Jivete. – _"It took me a while to find you! It's from someone who was in Helgen and saw what happened… I- I didn't read it! That's what they told me to say!"-_ The thin man said. Jivete took the letter from the guy's hands and started reading it in silence. I take a quick look at Fayre, who's having an apparently fun conversation with Astrid and then I go back to Jivete, whose face changed from serious to anger in a second. _–"I don't know why you think this is for me, it clearly says it's meant for the young woman who almost touched a dragon here, idiot!"-_ She states. The man opens his eyes in disbelief _–"Excuse me ma'am I didn't mean to… The person who gave this letter to me, told me to give it to the Dunmer of the group, they never mentioned any name!"-_ He says, putting his hands together in a submissive gest. Jivete then, proceeds to rip the letter in pieces and throwing them at the scared looking man's face. – _"We're leaving! You better move or we'll leave you kids here, you listen!?"-_ Jivete screams. I pack up my things and take my sword as the poor little man leaves to find his next destination.

We walk as always: Jivete goes first, then Nikaia, next comes Fayre, Astrid and I follow her, and finally, Vyell. Who's been absent lately. I look back at him and notice he was walking and reading a book at the same time. He's going to bump into a stone and fall right to his face, I think. I laugh at the mere thought _–"What's so funny?"-_ I hear a voice say. I look at Astrid, who was examining the landscape for clues. I smile _–"Nothing."-_ I say. In that moment, I hear Fayre let out a sigh and notice she's giving me an angry look. She doesn't like the way I treat Astrid, but I don't particularly think I treat her bad. It's just how I am.

 _-"Fayre, have you thought about what happened back in Helgen?"-_ I hear Jivete ask. I could see how she jumped at the sudden question. We all stop. Astrid put on a concerned look and bites her nail. _–"Dii sos fraan hi, Dovahkiin"-_ She answers. I can see how Astrid's face becomes the epitome of surprise. Jivete's stare is a confused one _–"Di what? What language is that girl, for Sithis!"-_ She exclaims. Fayre's sight goes down _–"I don't know… I never understood what it means but… It stuck on my brain. I can't stop repeating it over and over…"_ Fayre shyly replies. _–"My blood feels you…"-_ Astrid interrupted. _"My blood feels you, dragonborn. That's what I heard. It was meant for you, Fayre. The dragon- it was… looking right at you when it said that."-_ She states.

Dragonborn? I remember, time before even Astrid appeared near Ivarstead, a bard sang about the dragonborn's coming. The song talked about a hero who would end the evil of "all skyrim's foes", that we would know the dragonborn was coming. Jivete was happily drinking with Vyell and Nikaia when this happened, and I decided to ask the innkeeper -an argonian with a very short temper- about the bard's song. She told me there was once a Breton who fought a dragon named Alduin, an evil dragon, defeated him and lived to tell the tale. But that was two centuries ago and it was probably nonsense. Legends told by the greybeards to keep on living at peace at the top of their mountain.

And now here I was listening to an amnesiac girl talk about how a dragon talked to her, and another one claiming to understand the language it was spoken in. Are the legends true? What does this mean? Vyell was caressing his beard. I look at him intrigued by the recent events but all he does is stare at Astrid and Fayre. _–"You understood what the dragon told Fayre, Astrid?"_ \- Nikaia asks, since Jivete couldn't close her mouth from the amusement. Astrid nods and Fayre puts one arm over her shoulders to encourage her. _–"I honestly heard it talk just like you just talked to me, it made no difference… I didn't notice it spoke in a different language…"-_ She replied.

.

.

.

In my sleep I can hear the mobile phone ringing. I don't want to pick it up, but it's so insistent, it forces me to wake up. – _"Yeah?"-_ I tiredly say. At the other end of the line I can hear an exasperated voice, screaming something I couldn't quite understand because the person was talking way too fast. _–"Ok, now repeat it slower and clearer, please."-_ I say. _–"Damnit Hunter, Peter fucking disappeared! It's all over the bloody news, man! Get out of your bed and turn on the TV!"-_ The person replies. I look at the device's screen and notice it was Jason, one of my bandmates and friend. I do as he tells me and see the reporter talking and a picture of the nerd guy with the word " _MISSING"_ written down it as background. I raise the volume and notice they were interviewing the girl I saw in his picture a few days ago. The title reads " _Keira Arkwright – friend"_. She was crying, her eyes look emerald and even though she handles herself well, you could tell she was very affected by the loss of her friend. I wonder, did he tell us the truth? Damn him for making a girl cry. I hate it. I don't know this girl and probably never will, but I honestly cannot stand a girl crying. Why couldn't he take better care of himself? Plus, we lack a singer thanks to his disappearance. I guess I'll have to go out look for him now. If he's not dead yet, I'll kill him.


	5. City of Dragons - Chapter 6Part 1

**Notice:**

This Chapter will be divided in two

Enjoy~

* * *

 **Ch. 6**

Ever since I woke up after Jivete made me drink that powder, my head feels heavy. I am confused and can't remember things completely. I've forgotten some of the recent events and it's like a blank lagoon inside a memory, fragments of them that seem to have been rubbed away. I remember going to the castle in search of Jivete, Nikaia and Adstan, because there was an explosion. I also remember I fell off Sparrow's back, but things begin to get confused after I finally arrived at the castle. I think I met someone there… but I can't quite remember. It makes my head ache, the more I try to remember, the more it hurts. It's a bit like when I try to remember who I am, from where I come from, but not as intense.

Also, when Jivete received the letter from that thin little messenger, she decided we had a pending trip to Whiterun, wherever that is. We already are on our way there, my calf still bothers me, but I'm already used to the pain and it no longer prevents me from walking anymore. I guess I understand now why Adstan, even though there's quite the large wound on his right palm, can still get a hold of his sword and bravely use it against the bandits we've encountered along our journey. Passed this point, Adstan, Astrid and I are already very skilled when it comes to melee attacks. We've had enough encounters with Nikaia and Jivete to finally be able to say we're not useless people anymore. At least, I can say that about myself. Not very long ago I had to be the one Vyell, Adstan, Nikaia and Jivete had to take care of, the one who had to be protected from danger. But now, Astrid and I are finally warriors. We can defend ourselves and that makes me feel… free. I don't have to depend on my groupmates anymore. If something happens, from now on, I don't need a hero behind my back to protect me. I can finally be my own hero. But there are still some things I need to learn in order to become a good sorceress. Vyell still has got a lot of things to teach me, my magic isn't as strong yet and there are plenty of spells I have yet to learn from him. Destruction magic and lesser magic are all I've had the chance to learn with Vyell so far. I haven't really wanted to learn magic from Jivete, unlike Astrid… I feel her magic is a bit… dark. But that's why Astrid is way better with conjuration spells than me, I can barely conjure a fire atronach while she can conjure swords, wolves and even… bring back to life some enemies for a certain period of time so they can aid us in battles where the enemy is larger in number than us six.

Whiterun is near. Or so Jivete said this morning. We've been traveling for 3 days already; my hair is dirty and messy, and we have run into too many bandits. Too many to my liking… I can tell Astrid is as tired as I am, I was about to ask her how she feels when suddenly, a lightning strikes a man a few meters away from us and flies all the way to Adstan. The unknown man lands over Adstan who falls on his back letting loose of his sword, which sweeps to my feet. In that moment someone pushes me, and I fall next to it. The sound of a horse's steps leaving my side is what makes me realise a horse just ran over me. Awesome. At last I didn't fall over Adstan's sword!

 _-"Get off of me, asshole!"-_ I hear Adstan scream. Next, I hear Astrid scream and right after, she starts to cry _–"Oh my… He's dead!"-_ She screams. Jivete takes Astrid by the wrist and pulls her towards Vyell who hugs her and turns the other way around. A man was arriving to where we were standing.

This man was wearing a purple tunic, a black cape over it, a staff on his hand and his face was covered by the cape's hoodie. _–"Jivete, I can see you're still recruiting."-_ He says. Jivete draws both her daggers and looks at him, defying him. He laughs. _–"You know you can't win, Jivete. Even if that nasty dwarf helps you, you have no chance against me."-_ He says, but I can see Jivete's mouth put out a weak smile. Her eyes are cold _–"Oh, don't worry, Wlfric. I have three new friends that will not hesitate to aid me if you decide to keep this going."-_ She mischievously replies. What's happening here? That's when my eyes meet his. My head starts to hurt, he looks somehow familiar. Do I know him?

 _-"Fayre"-_ He starts, but then his eyes shrink at my confused face and he lets a sigh go _–"What did you do to her?!"-_ He screams at Jivete who gives him a serious look, eyes wide open. I can see him getting closer to Jivete when Nikaia suddenly jumps in front of her dark elf friend and shakes her hammer threadedly at the strange man. My body starts to shiver, I can see this is not just another bandit attack, but something far more serious than that… I take a step back but, in that moment, I bump into something. I look behind me to notice Adstan had moved all the way to stand right behind me. Was his intention to protect me in case the man tried anything with me?

– _"Why does this guy knows you, Fayre?"-_ Adstan asks in a whisper. I try to remember, but it's all blank. I don't remember this man… if I ever met him… - _"I- I don't know who he is… I don't remember meeting him before today, Adstan."-_ I reply, unsure of my words. In that moment Wlfric looks at me right in the eye with a cold stare _–"So you don't know me? What about when I saved you from that dragon back in Helgen? Or when I found you wandering around the carnage at the castle?"-_ He harshly asks. In that moment I feel Adstan's hand on my shoulder, he walks in front of me, interrupting the man who Jivete had previously called "Wlfric" from staring at me. At the same time, I feel someone pulling me from the back of my dress: it was Astrid, who had a concerned look on her face, I hug her.

 _-"I don't care who you are or how you got here, Wlfric, but don't you dare threaten my friends, understood?"-_ Adstan says with a firm voice while holding the tilt of his sword. The man, who's now standing a few steps away from Adstan, smiles widely at his comment _–"Don't worry, the only threat here are actually your friends, uh… how do I call you?"-_ He asks. _–"Don't waste your time giving him your name, he doesn't have to know who you are."-_ Jivete intervenes. Astrid starts to cry again _–"Fayre what's happening?!"-_ She asks, but I know as much as she does… I can't answer her question.

As I try to understand all this, I can see Vyell slowly approaching the strange man from behind. I can see Jivete giving him a cold stare and an almost imperceptible smile appears on her face as she does this. I suddenly become aware of what's about to happen and I stand up, run towards the man and scream _–"Vyell, no!"-_. I run as fast as I can, but something stops me from continuing my way to prevent Vyell from attacking the man.

Adstan had taken my hand and pulled me towards him, jailing me in a tight hug from which I can't set myself free. _–"No! Adstan! Let me go!"-_ I scream at the top of my lungs. I try to see what's happening but Adstan's arms grow tighter and my face is buried into his chest. I struggle, move, jump and kick him with all my strength, but I'm at disadvantage. I then, hear the sound of a fight. I can hear the sound of magic being casted, screams, Astrid is crying, I can hear Jivete's screams of battle and Nikaia's too. I can't see anything of what's happening behind me. I can't set myself free from Adstan. So, I decide to fire a firebolt on his side, knowing it's still wounded. He screams, but finally let go of me. I turn around and see a battle of three against one, Vyell was too, attacking the man. _–"No!"-_ I scream. I try to intervene, but Adstan takes me by an arm and doesn't let me approach them. _–"What the hell are you doing Fayre?! That man is clearly dangerous, he threatened Jivete!"-_ He screams. I try to set myself free but his hand is holding my arm way too tight _–"Adstan! You're hurting me!"-_ I struggle. Something tells me this man is not a threat, he's not evil. I know him! I can't let them hurt him!

In a second I cast another spell, this time an ice spike that lands on his foot. He lets go of me and I jump and stop in between the new man and Jivete _–"What in Oblivion are you doing, Fayre?!"-_ She exclaims. I look at her, both hands extended to prevent another attack. _–"Please, ma'am this man did nothing wrong! Why are we fighting?!"-_ I pitifully ask, her face darkens. _–"You have no idea what this man has done, Fayre. Now move away or you'll pay the consequences!"-_ Jivete harshly replies. In that moment Nikaia raises her hammer and gets ready to begin the fight again. _–"What did you do to her, Jivete? Why can't she remember me?"-_ I hear the man ask from behind me. Jivete then, stands upright and smiles _–"Nothing of your concern."-_ She says. I turn to face the man and give him an interrogating look, he puts his staff on his back and puts his hand on my head. From it, a golden, sparkly and warm aura starts to emanate. My thoughts become clear and I'm finally able to remember who this man, who was standing in front of me, was: Wlfric. The sorcerer who protected me from a dragon, the man who had save a dying woman and now, the one that gave me my memories back. His eyes, dark and deep, set on mines, his hand, warm and big placed on my head, his mouth, curled into a little smile… who was this man? Everything about him… was… so familiar… But unfortunately, his power wasn't enough for me to recover all my memories. I was still Fayre, the same lost and confused girl who had no idea of who she was or how she got to this foreign land of dragons, magic and violence whatsoever.

Looking right into his deep brown eyes, I had the taste of a memory approaching my head, but in that moment, I could feel how Wlfric's hand was violently taken off my forehead. I turn to find Adstan holding Wlfric by his wrist and giving him an intense look of anger _–"What did you do to her!?"-_ He demands. Wlfric, startled at first, let a sigh go and smiles at Adstan at the same time _–"Control yourself, puppet. I gave her her memories back."-_ He replies. Adstan's eyes widens _–"Is it true?"-_ He asks turning his sight to me – _"Do you remember who you are?"-_. I slightly open my mouth to answer but stop right after. No… I don't remember who I am, I just remember who _he_ is… and how I met him… but I'm scared to say this as Adstan could try to kill him if he thinks I'm just trying to protect him by saying I do remember what happened the day after Vyell found him. I stare at Adstan's blue eyes, thinking… what should I tell him? _–"She doesn't remember who she is, healing magic isn't miraculous. I just made her remember me."-_ Wlfric replies. Adstan's stare goes from me to Wlfric. I too, take a look at him, but he's defiantly looking at Jivete, who's standing behind me, hands on her hips watching us.

 _-"You do know you can't hide the undeniable truth forever, do you?!"-_ He severely asks Jivete. Her mouth curves into a troubled expression and her eyes turn colder than ever. Adstan turns to face her and Nikaia, who's now standing right next to her. _–"What does she mean, Jivete?"-_ Adstan asks Jivete. Nikaia then, makes motion of beginning a fight, but Jivete stops her putting one arm in front of her _–"He's right, there's nothing we should feel ashamed of. Adstan, Fayre, you've been saved by members of the Dark Brotherhood, worshipers of Sithis and of the night mother."-_ She states. I look at Adstan, his face is pale, his expression is of astonishment. I don't understand, the Dark Brotherhood? Night Mother? What's happening here? In that moment, I could feel a hand grab my shoulder. I turn to find Vyell handing me his book. For the first time, I can take a closer look at it. It's got a red cover with the impression in black tint of a right hand placed right in the middle of the cover.


	6. City of Dragons - Chapter 6Part 2

**Ch. 6 |** part 2

 _-"Vyell is our listener. He hears the night mother's wishes, those who have made the black sacrament entrust our mother with a contract, and we attend their calling. This man over here, used to be one of us, until he betrayed us and burnt our sanctuary two years and a half ago, killing our brothers and sisters in the process! He must be eliminated!"-_ Jivete states. In that moment, Nikaia jumps over him, ready to fall over Wlfric with all her strength and her hammer's weight. Adstan, forseeing this, pushes me away from the middle of them two and we land next to where Astrid was standing. She kneels to hand me a helping hand while Adstan readies his sword. Meanwhile, Wlfric quickly took his staff and casts a protective shield in front of him, which saved him from receiving Nikaia's hit. _–"It wasn't right! Killing people is never the answer!"-_ Wlfric exclaims and conjures a fire wolf to his aid. _–"We serve our Lord Sithis! You were a Nightingale too, you knew what it was all about when you joined the guild!"-_ Jivete screams, running over Wlfric and attacking him with one of her heaviest attacks.

Nightingale? Dark Brotherhood? What on earth is going on here?! In that moment an explosion takes place, throwing me and Astrid far away from the place where we were watching. Adstan buried his sword to the ground, fact that helped him stay in place after the explosion took place. Looks like Wlfric's wolf was defeated by Vyell and, in a last sample of its power, it exploded, taking us all with it in the process.

My sight is blurry, I can hear a whistle in my ears that makes me unstable. I can see Astrid unconscious on the ground, I try to move her to wake her up, but she's got a wound on her head. I stand up and try to get where Jivete, Nikaia, Wlfric and Vyell are fighting, but my legs feel weak, my wound hurts and I fall to the ground again. Wlfric is at disadvantage. I need to help him! In that moment Wlfric's words echo in my head: " _Killing people is never the answer…_ ". He's right. Whatever Jivete and Nikaia do for a living, it can't be right if they kill people. I need to stop them. I stand up once again, take a glare at Adstan who's watching, doubting…

Jivete screams at him to come aid them. Wlfric, even though he's one against three, is somehow winning the fight. I look at Adstan, who's standing still on the same spot he was before the explosion took place. Jivete continues to scream at him, but his face doesn't change. I can see he's confused as to what to do. What's the right thing to do? Who should we believe in? Our saviours? Or the strange sorcerer fighting our companions? I don't know anything about the guilds they claim to be part of, but I can guess Adstan has an idea. So… why is he doubting? Jivete screams one last time, she's about to receive a strong hit coming from Wlfric's staff, and that's when Adstan makes his choice. He defends Jivete from the aggressive thunderbolt Wlfric sent her way. Adstan has joined the fight.

What can I do? Both of them killed people… Jivete claims her contracts are ordered by Sithis, said creator of the Daedra, a being worshipped by many, powerful and mighty. I don't really know much about this "God" if you can call it like that, but I sure don't feel comfortable killing people. I don't think someone could make a contract to kill someone just out of pleasure… and then it comes Wlfric. He says the Dark Brotherhood had to be eliminated because _killing is never the answer_. But Jivete said he killed her siblings and burnt her sanctuary! How can that possibly be the right thing to do? I'm doubting… but I've chosen my side of this battle. I decide to take a look at Vyell's book. I open it. Thousands of names have been written down, it's like a death note. No reason written next to their names, no explanation. Just a lot of names, some of them have been crossed out, and a location written next to each one of them. Oh Lord… don't tell me this is the reason why they disappear sometimes… I take my daggers, take off my cape and run to where those who used to be my friends and Wlfric are fighting. It's not fair. Four against one, that's savage. I'm taking the side of who haven't killed as many people… or so I want to believe.

I run next to Wlfric, he looks at me in surprise _–"You're helping me?"-_ He asks, surprise on his face. I smile at him. I can see Jivete noticing I joined the fight and makes Nikaia a sign to attack me. Nikaia then, approaches me threadedly, her eyes are cold, she's smiling… and her smile is… frightening. I take my position, it's not like I've never fought her before, but this time something is different. I can see fire in her eyes, fire that I've never seen before. She means to kill me.

I fight Nikaia for a good while, I'm not going to make it easy for her. She's not holding back either. I give a quick glare to Vyell and Adstan, they're fighting Wlfric's conjured helpers. What a strong sorcerer he is. Finally, Jivete is fighting Wlfric herself and there seems to be a tie between them. Oh God, where did I get myself into? At least Nikaia can't help Jivete defeat Wlfric this time, I'm keeping her busy. In a second I see Nikaia jumping over me and I cast a lesser shield to protect myself from her hammer. The hit is so powerful, it makes me fly away all the way to where Vyell and Adstan, who hadn't notice until just now that I swiped to their feet, I had joined the battle, were fighting. Vyell helps me stand up, they haven't noticed whose side I'm fighting for yet, it seems. _–"Don't you dare help that traitor Vyell! She's helping Wlfric get rid of us!"-_ Nikaia screams at Vyell. After hearing this, Adstan as Vyell look at me with astonishment. I can see how Adstan reaches one hand out to me but stops mid gesture _–"What…"-_ He begins to say, eyes wide open, but couldn't find it in him to finish the sentence. I lower my sight _–"I'm sorry Adstan… Vyell… I can't aid people who assassinate for a living…"-_ And so, I grab my daggers and jump over a startled Nikaia, who didn't expect me to attack her in that moment. I make one of the movements Jivete taught me and, in a minute, the hilt of my dagger had hit Nikaia's head so hard, she lost consciousness. Jivete, who saw this, screamed at Nikaia with all her might but one of Wlfric's attacks reached her throwing her to the ground, wounded.

I relax, looks like things are finally over. But in a second I can see with the corner of my eye how something approaches me with such speed it doesn't give me time to defend myself. A strong pain pierces the right side of my stomach. Jivete had pierced me with one of her daggers. I spit blood from my mouth and fall over my knees. I can hear Adstan scream at me, but the pain is so intense I can hardly hear or see anything beyond Jivete's silver eyes. She takes her dagger out of me _–"You think you can just betray us after all we've done for you?! Oh girl, hope you liked this sunrise, because it will be the last one you'll ever see!"-_ She screams, smiling merciless at me. I can see she's going to give me the final hit, but something blocks her attack before she could hit me.

Adstan had saved me with his sword. _–"I won't let you harm her, Jivete"-_ He says. I'm looking for Vyell, but he's nowhere to be found. _–"A-Adstan… Vyell is… not… uhg!"-_ I try to say, but another spit of blood comes out of my mouth as I collapse to the floor. With all my might and strength, I stand on my knees once again to see how Jivete begins to attack Adstan, who does everything in his power to prevent her from hurting him, but he's tired. I can see that. Suddenly, as quickly as a lighting and out of nowhere I see Nikaia approaching Adstan from one side. Wlfric fails to hit her with one of his thunderbolts and invokes a rune of lightening before Nikaia can easily jump over it, escaping from the premediated attack Wlfric had planned to prevent her from attacking Adstan. I stand up, if I don't do something, they're going to kill him! I grab my dagger and do everything on my power to run towards Nikaia, but my legs fail me, and I end up falling down right behind Jivete. I can see Nikaia is about to hit Adstan with her hammer, but all of a sudden, an arrow pierces Nikaia's throat and she falls, lifeless, next to Adstan. Jivete gets distracted by this and Adstan takes the opportunity to push her away from him, moment I take advantage from, standing up, leaving the weakness and pain aside, and bury my dagger right in between Jivete's back, piercing her heart.

I can see how Jivete, in her last moments, took Nikaia's hand and kissed it one last time.

I, weak and heavily losing blood, search for the place where the arrow had come to Nikaia's encounter and see Astrid still holding her bow and in position to throw another arrow to our direction. She then, stands up and starts running towards me _–"Fayre! Fayre! Are you alright!?"-_ She screams while running as fast as she can to my encounter. I look at Adstan one last time, he too, is coming my way, but what I didn't notice is I was standing too close to a slope and my weakness makes me fall down the cliff. The last thing I get to see is Adstan reaching his hand to me and Astrid arriving right after, tears in her eyes screaming my name…

Fayre.


End file.
